Of the Moluccas. 



399 



everywhere eat their flesli, and as their motions are so slow, 

 easily catch them by climbing ; so that it is wonderful they 

 have not been exterminated. It may be, however, that their 

 dense woolly fur protects them from birds of prey, and the 

 islands they live in are too thinly inhabited for man to be 

 able to exterminate them. The figure represents Cuscus or- 

 iiatus, a new species discovered by me in Batchian, and which 



cuscus ORNATUS. 



also inhabits Ternate. It is peculiar to the Moluccas, while 

 the two other species which inhabit Ceram are found also in 

 New Guinea and Waigiou. 



In place of the excessive poverty of mammals which char- 

 acterizes the Moluccas, we have a very rich display of the 

 feathered tribes. The number of species of birds at present 

 known from the various islands of the Moluccan group is 265, 



